India gifts 200,000 vaccine doses to 95,000 UN personnel
India on Wednesday offered a COVID-19 vaccine to all United Nations peacekeepers — nearly 95,000 troops in 12 missions around the world.
“Keeping in mind the UN peacekeepers who operate in such difficult circumstances, we would like to announce today a git of 200,000 doses for them,” India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a UN Security Council meeting on the coronavirus pandemic and conflict zones.
The United Nations on Wednesday led calls for a coordinated global effort to vaccinate against COVID-19, warning that gaping inequities in initial efforts put the whole planet at risk.
Foreign ministers met virtually for a first-ever UN Security Council session on vaccinations called by current chair Britain, which said the world had a “moral duty” to act together against the pandemic that has killed more than 2.4 million people.
In the UAE, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) recorded 3,452 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday.
In addition to the new cases, 3,570 individuals have recovered and 14 people passed away.
Using state-of-the-art medical testing equipment, the ministry has conducted 185,502 additional COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours.
The UAE has recorded 358,583 positive coronavirus cases since the outbreak, 343,935 people have recovered and 1,055 passed away.
Bahrain has launched a digital COVID-19 vaccine passport, one of the first countries to do so, the Gulf state’s media office said on Wednesday.
Governments and developers around the world are exploring how certificates and passports could help to reopen economies by identifying those protected against COVID-19.
Bahrain’s ‘Beaware’ app displays a green shield alongside an official certificate detailing the person’s name, date of birth, nationality and which vaccine was received.
Users must have received two doses of a vaccine, separated by 21 days, and then wait for two weeks for antibodies to develop, the statement said.
“Authorities can verify its validity by scanning a QR code linking to the national vaccine register,” it said.
Amid signs that more infectious coronavirus variants are spreading unchecked across Europe, governments and EU leaders scrambled Wednesday to speed up vaccine efforts that have been hampered by limited supplies and to fund ways to hunt down variants and counter them.
The European Union announced Wednesday that it has agreed to buy a further 300 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and was injecting almost a quarter of a billion euros (almost $300 million) into efforts to combat virus variants.
The news came only hours ater Pfizer and Biontech said they had signed a deal to deliver an additional 200 million vaccine doses to the bloc.
The EU Commission said its second contract with Moderna provides for an additional purchase of 150 million doses in 2021 and an option to purchase 150 million more doses in 2022.
In South Africa, cracking a joke about his fear of needles, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday became one of the first people to receive a COVID-19 vaccination in the country that has by far the highest confirmed virus caseload in Africa.
“Can I close my eyes?” Ramaphosa bantered as a health worker injected him with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in a live broadcast on South African television.
Staff at the district hospital in Khayelitsha, a poor township near Cape Town, applauded. Minutes later, Ramaphosa urged South Africa’s 60 million people to have confidence in the vaccines despite a bumpy start to the inoculation campaign marked by a last-minute switch of vaccines.
Japan launched its coronavirus vaccination campaign Wednesday, months ater other major economies started giving shots and amid questions about whether the drive would would reach enough people quickly enough to save a Summer Olympics already delayed by the pandemic.
Despite a recent rise in infections, Japan has largely dodged the kind of cataclysm that has batered other wealthy countries’ economies, social networks and health care systems. But the fate of the Olympics, and the billions of dollars at stake, makes Japan’s vaccine campaign crucial.
UAE reports 3,452 new COVID-19 cases, 14 deaths; Bahrain launches digital vaccine passport; EU hails deals to get more vaccine shots; Japan starts vaccinations with eye on Olympics.